Derrida by Night.

In receipt of the Adorno prize in 2001, Jacques Derrida meditates on what Theodore Adorno had to say about dreams and violence (Derrida “Paper Machine”, 2001/2005:168)

What might be made of the work of Derrida on the rogue state, and how could this be thought of in the light of Youth v. Police violence in France? It should not be overlooked that the cars that burn in Paris burn at night, as in some dream or nightmare in the dark unconscious that underpins the racist imperialist State. The burning cars are certainly unusual and perhaps even weird versions of what Derrida might have called writing in the expanded sense. Is there any mileage in Derrida’s notion of inscription, as a way to make sense of this uprising? – certainly the car (carriage-way) has marked Paris and since Haussman we know this is an issue of urban planning, as it is perhaps in a different way for the suburbs today.

Same reason, if not inverse reasoning as well, applies for ‘why?’ as when I reccommended the Zamyatin novel “We” on the Simone post – its relevant here too. Terror has to be combatted by humour as well as seriousness – the link with writing and rioting maybe does have a danger of not being (taken as) serious. I mean it to be, but then its also stepping onto the dangerous terrain of Derridada. I mean, ‘mileage’… Anyway, in “We” the architect of the spaceship is called Integral. I do like that.